


Just a babysitter doing his damn job

by DatGooz



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Hurt Steve, One Sided Johnathan/Nancy, Stancy Endgame, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:13:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24449401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DatGooz/pseuds/DatGooz
Summary: Steve Might be concussed and way too cool for this but dammit if he's going to let these little idiots run head first into danger without his help, not that he really has a choice after being loaded into the back of a car and driven to the gates of hell, or something equally profound. Injured steve fic with strong hints of Stancy and Steve & Dustin friendship.
Relationships: Dustin Henderson & Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Just a babysitter doing his damn job

**Author's Note:**

> So here's either the first or only Chapter of a Stancy stranger things Fanfiction that's been foating about in my brain for months, and I've finally finshed writing at 4am so excuse any mistakes but do let me know about them! I've got a terrible track record of finishing fics, just ask the notes app on my phone. So I wanted to try my hand at a little dama fic after watching this episode and since I love Steve and Nancy I wanted to work that into it as well. It's been a minute since I've watched the episode so I may be messing with the details a little but we'll call it creative license and not awful memory. If anyone would like to see me continue this let me know! Don't worry though if I do it won't be this depressing throughout, cause the one lesson I can say I've walked away from this show with is that Steve deserves to catch a break. And if that break just so happens to be a certain Nancy Wheeler then who am I to deny it. Anyway essay portion complete hope you enjoy!

After torching the hub, the group raced back towards the exit, before they could get there, they find a Demodog blocking their path, Dustin, assuming it to be Dart, approaches slowly, trying to calm it. As it turns out, it isn’t and it lunges for him. Steve still sluggish from Billy’s brutal beating shoves Dustin out of the way, but is too slow in bringing up his bat and gets tackled to the ground by the monster, it taking a swipe at his side on the way down, unnoticed by the rest of them as they’re too busy shouting trying to distract the monster. It works just long enough for Steve to bring up his hand and smash the bat over the monster, stunning it long enough for him to stand and deliver several decisive blows. Once it stopped twitching the group let out a collective sigh of relief and continued on. Steve hung back and placed his hand over his side, feeling the shredded skin and worrying amount of blood. He quickly pushes through the pain and catches up to Mike who was trailing behind the rest of them somewhat. He puts his hand on Mikes shoulder who startles but shoots him an attempt at a smile when he looks up at him, Steve grimaces back. 

“Look I know you’re not my biggest fan” Mike snorts at this, Steve shakes his in in slight amused irritation “But despite that, would you mind doing me a favour? Could you give this to your sister?” He puts his hand in his pocket, pulling out a slightly crumpled piece of paper. 

Mike just looks at it, then stares at Steve “What is it?” 

Steve gives a brief, if strained chuckle “It’s a piece of paper Mike, I’m sure you’ve used one in school before” 

Rolling his eyes, Mike shakes his head in annoyance “I know that, Dick, but why can’t you give it to her?” 

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed Mike but your sister kind of hates me right now. Besides, I’m not trying to get in between her and Johnathan, not anymore, not if that’s what she wants. But there’s still some stuff I need to tell her, stuff I should have said much sooner, maybe if I did...” Steve shakes his head a bit to stop that train of thought, having the adverse reaction of causing him to sway slightly while walking, but he pressed on “Whatever, just please give it to her, you’ll be doing me a solid” 

“Fine, you did help us tonight, even if we didn’t give you much of a choice” He takes the note off of Steve, before noticing the blood on it and looking up at Steve in alarm. 

He just shrugs it off, pointing to his face with a smirk “Billy did a number on me, surprised I could even write it to be honest, hopefully it actually makes sense” He chuckles but even to mikes ears it wrings a bit hollow. He eyes Steve for a second longer before nodding, pocketing the note and catching up with the rest of the group. 

They get to the exit just as they hear the sound of countless dogs in the distance. One by one, they rush up until just Steve and Dustin are left as the dogs get closer while the rest of the group scream at them from above. Once the monsters simply pass them by, the group sits back with a collective cry of relief. suddenly Steve wilts and slumps to the ground. 

“Steve what the hell!” Dustin shocked, runs to him and grabs him before he falls completely, feeling his hands get wet he pulls them away and sees they're covered in blood. "This, this wasn’t Billy, was it?” 

“Maybe a little, but that Demodog got a real good swipe at me when it took me down, didn’t matter though, had to get you idiots out of this hellhole, literally” He replies weakly but still with a faint smirk. 

Dustin makes to grab for him "We need to get you out of here Steve, you’ll have plenty of time to bitch about the pain when we get back, you’ll probably get an awesome scar out of this too” He tries for a smile, but it’s hard to pull off with tears streaming down his face. 

"Buddy unless you’re secretly Clark Kent, which I doubt cause you’re not wearing glasses and your hairs much cooler, there’s no way you’re getting me and yourself out of here” It’s said with a smile reaching Steve’s eyes but fading by the second. 

“There has to be a way to get you out of here I can’t just leave you here, if we all pull on the rope then maybe -” 

Steve smiles at him and says "We have no idea how long the entrance will stay open for. Listen I promised Nance I’d keep you guys safe, and when that didn’t pan out, I promised myself I'd get you dumb kids out of here alive, only one way that's going to happen now isn't there" 

" I can't leave you behind Steve, you're my friend" Sincerity marked his every word and it warmed Steve’s heart for a moment. 

"And I never thought I’d be saying this to my Ex’s kid brothers friend but you might be my only friend but you need to leave, now" 

"I'll get you help; we're going to get you out of here I promise" 

"I know kid, now scram before you really start to piss me off" He trails off towards the end of saying this and his eyes slowly shut. 

Tears in his eyes Dustin went up and out into the safety where all his friends were cheering at a job well done, while he sits on the ground and cries. It takes them about a minute to quiet down and notice this, with Mike surprisingly being the first to speak up " Wh-wheres Steve?" 

At this Dustin just shakes his head " One of the dogs got him, he hid it till he knew we were safe, he- I couldn't carry him and he couldn't, he couldn't make it" 

"Well we can't just stand here, we need to go and get him, we can't just leave him down there!" Max screams. 

"He gave me a note" Mike says, almost a whisper. 

"What?" Lucas was the first to speak up 

"When we were coming back he gave me a note, said to give it to Nancy cause things were too weird between them, he had a look in his eyes, he knew he wasn't coming back" 

At this point they all had tears in their eyes 

"We need to get back to hopper, he'll know exactly what to do, he has to" 

"Right yeah ok we need to hurry" 

They raced back to the Byers house, the most likely point they'd all congregate if all went well. 

Mike was the first through the door and Nancy immediately spotted him and pounced on him with a bone crushing hug " Thank god you're ok, I can't believe you all ran off like that, we had no clue what happened to you guys!" 

By this point they were all through the door and Dustin had ran straight for hopper who was looking after eleven. Nancy looked around and realised who was missing 

"Where's Steve, he had his fill of craziness?" She said it with a smile and turned to Mike, who had fresh tears in his eyes and suddenly she was worried, desperate that it wasn't what she thought. "Mike where is he?" 

Out of the corner of her eye she hopper on the phone frantically talking to someone before he grabbed his keys and sped out the door. 

When she looked back at Mike he was holding a blood stained note with her name on it, she takes it slowly and with tears springing to her eyes, recognises that familiar messy scrawl her name is written in. She opens it with shaky hands and begins to read. 

'Nance 

I'm sorry, I know it's not enough, not nearly enough but know that I am, I'm so sorry for everything and it's hard to list everything that I need to apologise for but I'll try my best. I'm sorry your best friend died because of me, I'm sorry for not being there for you enough. I'm sorry you couldn't love me the way I loved you, I'm sorry for not being enough. I'm sorry you got thrown into this fucked up nightmare world but I honestly don't think anyone would be able to come out the other side stronger quite like you, I know I never could. 

I'm in the back of Billy's car being driven into a land of nightmares and I'm fucking scared Nance, I can barely see and I'm pretty sure I've got a serious concussion but there's not a chance I'm going to leave these kids to this alone. A couple years ago I might have, you changed that and I can't thank you enough for it, you made me a better person Nance. I can look in the mirror and be almost proud of who I've become so thank you. I'm not sure what's gonna happen tonight but I promise you I'll die before I let anything happen to Mike and the rest of those idiots. 

I wish we could have worked out because I'm so in love with you Nancy wheeler that I need to say this. Whatever happens to me tonight I want you to be happy and I wish I was able to give it to you. But I wasn't and I've accepted that, so if you find your happiness with Johnathan or someone else know that I'm here for you and I always will be. 

I love you Nancy Wheeler 

Your idiot, always, Steve Harrington' 

By the end of the letter she was sobbing uncontrollably with mike's arms wrapped around and the rest of the room watching on in grief and heartbreak. Time seemed to go by in a blur for Nancy after that, a few people came up and tried to talk to her, namely Johnathan, but she just stared straight ahead blankly, until the moment hopper walked back into the house looking haunted and covered with blood that wasn't there when he left. He looked at Nancy sadly and turned to the rest of the gathered group " We, we got him, he was still alive but he- we lost him a few times in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. They managed to stabilise him, get him breathing again but they don't know, they had to take him and once we got to the hospital and they wouldn't let me stay with him. They had to take him in for surgery and they're not sure how long it'll take, the wound was so deep" 

He took a breath and the room was silent, Nancy was no longer staring at the wall but quietly sobbing into her hands with Dustin close by, tears streaming down his own cheeks. 

“They said they'll let us know when he can have visitors, family only but he told me last week that his parents were away for the next few weeks so I figured a couple of you might want to come to the hospital and wait with me" 

Without a word Nancy stood up, grabbed Dustin's hand and led him outside to hoppers car. Hopper takes one last look around the room and headed out to join them. 

The trip to the hospital is one of complete silence with not even the radio to fill it. Once they get to the waiting room Dustin and Nancy take a seat while hopper quietly talks to the nurse. After a few minutes he comes back to them and sits down. He pauses, a beat later 

"He's still in surgery, there was a- a claw left behind that was causing a lot of internal bleeding but-" he looks round only to be met with a look from Dustin and the sight of Nancy crawling further into herself. At this he decides to change tact. " Once he's out you'll be able to go in and see him if you're up for it, one at a time at first" 

Nancy nods her head almost imperceptibly. 

Hours go by before a doctor finally comes out, looking worse for wear and hopper goes to meet him "It was touch and go, we lost him twice on the operating table but we got him through it" 

"So, he'll make it?" Hopper asks with the first glimmer of hope since those kids came through that door without Steve. 

" He's still in a critical condition, you have to understand we're not just dealing with his chest injury which would be bad enough on its own but he looks to have been beaten within an inch of his life even before that and from what you've told us since, the concussion he's suffering will do him no favours" 

The doctor sighs, running a tired hand through his hair "Look chief I'll be honest with you, he's not got a great chance of making it through the night, but if by some miracle he manages to, I'm confident that'll be him out of the woods and on the road to recovery" 

Hopper takes all of this information in and barely knows what to do with it himself, it's all too much and he can't even begin to understand what Nancy and probably Dustin are going through. 

He looks at them and turns back to the doctor "Can they see him?" 

"Of course, you might want to tell them to say their goodbyes, just in case" 

"Thanks doc, really" 

The doctor puts a sympathetic hand on hoppers shoulder " Steve's a strong kid, he can pull through" with that he walk away towards the long night ahead of him. 

Hopper walks back to the two sitting in silence on the uncomfortable waiting room chairs "You can see him now but just, just say what you need to, let him know you're there with him" 

Nancy understood the meaning behind his words and fresh tears sprung to her eyes so she simply nodded and headed towards him room. 

Once she gets in, she can't help but let out a sob. She barely recognises him, there's wires sticking out of his body seemingly everywhere, his face bruised and swollen, she's never seen him this pale and lifeless. "Steve, oh god..." She takes a seat beside him, takes his hand and just sits for a minute before slowly opening her mouth. 

"I can't believe this is happening, I never wanted you to get wrapped up in this and I know you think it's because I couldn't trust you, but the thought of losing you destroys me Steve. God I love you so much it kills me and I hate that I ever made you think otherwise, it was you, it was always you. I'm sorry I ever made you think I liked Johnathan, I'm sorry that your, your last thought of me might be that I hated you. God Steve that's so far from the truth. What you did tonight, what you went through to protect my brother, and his friends, Steve it was incredible. You're incredible and I need you to wake up so I can tell you that to your idiot face ok? I know we're still young but Steve I want to spend the rest of my life with you so I need you to wake up ok? Please wake up I'm begging you" 

She put her head down on the bed, sobbing, eventually hopper came opened the door with Dustin in tow, she looks up and takes one last look at Steve's broken body, kisses his cheek and whispers her love, and gives Dustin the room, going back to sit with her head in her hands, crying softly. That’s how Dustin finds her 5 minutes later with his own tears flowing freely. Sitting down beside her he struggles to find the words “What Steve did tonight, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you if he hadn’t. I’ve never seen someone so determined to do the right thing but still try to act cool and mildly annoyed doing it” 

Nancy let out a wet sob of a laugh and turned to Dustin “You really like him, don’t you? Not that I could blame you really, it’s hard not to” 

Dustin gave a half-hearted shrug “I don’t even really know him but I knew he’d have our backs from the second I really met him, even if he bitched about it the whole time” Dustin hesitated before he said what was weighing on his mind, but of course Nancy picked up on it. 

“What is it? You can talk to me, you know?” 

He really didn’t want to be having this particular conversation as all it could really bring is hurt but he knew he owed Steve, and Nancy too, to allow Nancy to hear it “Do you know the last thing he said to me before he, he told me to leave him behind?” Nancy flinched at the mention of this but stayed quiet, urging him to continue “I told him that he was my friend, I couldn’t just abandon him, he gave me this look, and told me I might just be his only one. He might di- not make it back to us thinking the only person to think of him as a friend was a 13-year-old kid he barely knew. Nothing about this is right” everything comes crashing down on him there, in the middle of a deserted hospital waiting room, this whole alien dimension bullshit and the fact that his friend is lying a few rooms over in a bed fighting for his life thinking he was pretty much alone in the world. It wasn’t fair, not one goddamn bit. 

It was all Nancy could do to hold Dustin while he cried, her own tears silently falling hoping the boy she loves could fight for his life for her, one last time. Eventually, exhausted, they cried themselves to a restless sleep, only to be awoken hours later by Hopper standing over them, rubbing a hand down his face looking exhausted. 

“He’s awake”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you enjoyed and would like to see more, I promise if there is it'll be less depressing, eventually.


End file.
